Situation Movement States
Specific Situation Movement States
A total of 11 different Situation Movement States (SMSs) could be identified in the data: barrier, being led, dead end, decision, moving, observing, orienteering,
problematic, shifting, waiting, and worrying. These are clarified in Table 1. A barrier situation was about something or somebody arresting the individual’s progress towards his goal. In this sample, the informant was supposed to prepare for a school
examination, but more pressing things got in the way:
”… well sometimes I’ve used it … for example when I went to an exam and I didn’t prepa—
remember to read, or I didn’t have time to read, so I’ve meditated --- known, although I didn’t read
’em.”
(Dagmar 70)
When the actor was being led, he was following another person along a figurative path.
This category is illustrated by an instance in which the respondent was going to settle a cruel, previous-life deed of hers with a stranger, at her deceased husband’s request, or so it seemed:
”Well then I ’yeah it’s my husband’ — well he — and he is sending a message that I should contact … M and … well this person is involved this priest well he is the minister in M now, and it turned out that I some time centuries — perhaps millennia — ago well I’ve … been a man, and I’ve very brutally killed this person this priest, and my husband has been a child who has seen then he has been below the stairs watching it … and now I should go to clear up then and to discuss with him so that we would get it like — it done with and I don’t know more about it then I haven’t discussed this with anyone but I would assume that in order to settle the heritage which comes in reincarnation … so that this pressure wouldn’t continue … so I assumed — it wasn’t said directly but — because my husband maybe wanted to contact me from beyond, so he apparently like was
— saw me like … as a murderer, and because of it between us there was some … thing that we didn’t completely open to each other, so I would assume that for this reason I should now go to discuss then with this person.”
(Jenni 40)
In a dead end, the individual could not proceed with his journey, since he reached the end of the road. For example, one of the interviewees felt that she could not live any more:
”I gave up somehow so I suppose I didn’t like think about anythin’ but like … I like gave up and I like … I guess I also thought about death then somethin’ here that is. Not actively like I go and hang myself or somethin’ like that, but in some way so that I couldn’t like live. I got the feeling that ’now I can’t go on any longer with this business’ that all are awful all people. So I really had this kind of bad negative thoughts, although they weren’t clear no clear thought, nothing coherent.
But a total depression.”
(Dagmar 557-562)
When facing a decision, the protagonist came to a cross-roads at which he had to choose one avenue to walk. In this extract, the partaker had two options as to resolving the situation:
”So … two possibilities: either make violent decisions or let time take care. […] It can be resolved violently or peaceably depending on the parties’ ---.”
(Sampo 52, 71)
Moving implied that the actor was free to approach his destination. As a case in point, one of the participants was going home, filled with happiness:
”I’d been with the dog in a forest and then well … it was in fact already spring, late winter so that ice started to be like --- that it wasn’t quite reliable. I decided … to take a shortcut across the ice, and the dog went in front. I was in quite a good mood, really happy that everything was beautiful and the sun was shining and being with the dog was wonderful and well … such a good mood.”
(Dagmar 402-404)
Observing meant that the individual was not concerned about getting anywhere, but just
wanted to monitor the circumstances. The only time this happened was when an
interviewee’s husband recovered from a disease, and she apparently kept an eye on him in case his condition got worse again:
”Did they stop then altogether these [seizures]?”
”Yes, yes they did and here one must wonder at it a great deal, that accord to like them [doctors]
those seizures should come although this medication is on. This is like most marvellous of all.”
(Cecilia 47-49)
If the situation was reckoned as orienteering, the person was searching for a way to his objective, or the target itself. The following example, in which the subject aspired to experience supernatural phenomena, but did not quite know how to attain them, reflects the first mentioned position:
”Well, since small always been interested in this kinda paranormal things, phenomena, experiences and phenomena and contacts. And when I learned to read, I to this— read awful lot of this kinda literature so I too want to experience them somethin’ that oth— that was tol— written. It’s this which has always been interesting to me somehow.”
(Ulla 319-322)
In a problematic situation, the individual was dragged down a road not of his own accord. The plight could even involve nightmarish features, like in this case:
”I was for this reason every night afraid of the time when I — because I was always woken up then by some weird sound, and it was like whale’s whistling. That was the most horrible thing about it. And then although I couldn’t hear the sound any more well I woke up every night and I was awfully afraid at that time always. … And then I can remember that I — all kinds of prayers every night at that time I started — I came up with all sorts of prayers like ’Jesus Christ help’ so it was really terrible. If one experiences shocks like that then …”
(Gaia 208-212)
The situation was called shifting when the doer wished to switch over to another track from the current one. An exemplar of this is changing one’s job:
”Such a situation arose — it could be said that a career change was in mind. It came — it was such a very one could say tricky situation.”
(Cecilia 279-280)
Waiting signified that the actor was looking forward to a certain happening, such as becoming a healer:
”Of course it would be like it would be as soon as … possible but … it doesn’t go like that.
There’s no actual — it comes when it comes if it comes.”
(Helena 95-96)
While worrying, the person was unsure of whether he could arrive at his destination.
For instance, the informant could fret over his projected appearance in public:
”Or … it was a --- uninhibited feeling — or after that I was under such a — of course slight stress that how will I begin to open the parcel, begin to tell people, but it’s not any longer these days. Of course I was a bit nervous at first about how I would like start to tell the general public about it.”
(Paavo 99-100)
TABLE 1. Specific Situation Movement States (SMSs) and their properties (n=47)
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Specific SMS* Characteristics* f %
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Orienteeringa •looking for a way to destination or destination itself 12 26
•searching for something new
•drive comes from within (•experimenting with something)
Problematicb,f,g •being on a road against one’s own will 7 15
•caused by another person or circumstance
•negative feelings
(•the matter must be sorted out)
(•someone else’s dilemma, but individual is dragged along) (•being dominated by another)
Being ledb •following another towards destination 5 11
•in accordance with individual’s desires (•task to accomplish or duty to fulfil) (•going with the stream)
(•person taken advantage of)
Worryingc •reaching destination uncertain 5 11
(•route unclear)
(•being influenced by others) (•pressure)
(•dangers)
Movingb •free movement towards destination 4 9
•destination and route there known
•other people have no effect
(•no destination or plan to get there at all) (•due to ignorance or neglect)
Waitingb •expecting a particular event 4 9
(•uncertainty)
Barrierb,c,f,g •someone/something blocking the way 3 6
•destination known
Dead enda,d •road leads nowhere 3 6
•impossible to continue (•strong negative emotions) (•giving up)
Shiftinge •shifting to another road 2 4
•because of inner compulsion or rising of opportunity (•problematic)
(•destination known)
Decisionb,c,f,g •resolving which way to go from a crossroads 1 2
Observingb,c •monitoring surroundings 1 2
•movement unimportant
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Total 47 100
_____________________________________________________________________________________
* Following the theory of Sense-Making, these categories are represented in a partially metaphoric guise.
a Source: Perttula 1993, 68. e Source: Perttula 1993, 69.
b Source: Dervin 1983b, 61. f Source: Dervin 1991, 67.
c Source: Johnson 1996, 144. g Source: Dervin 1992, 75.
d Combination of Dervin’s (1983b, 61; 1992, 75) ”spin-out” and ”wash-out”.
None of the categories above is novel, but they do represent a rather comprehensive array of SMSs. Only Dervin’s (1983b, 61) ”out to lunch” and ”passing time” were not present. As a matter of fact, I have not seen these in any other empirical study, either.
The characterizations of many SMSs — being led, dead end, moving, problematic, and shifting — in the study at hand add something to previous elucidations. The central features of two classes diverge from earlier conceptions. When orienteering, the individual does not always know his destination (cf. Perttula 1993, 68). In a worry situation, on the other hand, the person does seem to be aware of his goal (cf. Johnson 1996, 144), but he is haunted by the uncertainty of reaching it. As the SMSs are fairly established by now, it would be perfectly justified to examine them deductively by requesting the respondents to choose a situation category rather than have them freely describe the situation. This has in fact been done for quite some time in Sense-Making research. Because of the large number of categories under SMS, I decided to devise another typology at a higher level of abstraction. Therefore the classes presented in Table 1 were named ”specific” SMSs, and those in Table 2 ”generic” SMSs.
Judging by Table 1, orienteering was by far the most common type of situation, occurring in every fourth instance, while decision and observing were the rarest types, each manifesting but once. The distribution differs markedly from that of
Kumpulainen’s (1993, 40) and Tuominen’s (1992a, 47). For instance, orienteering was not manifest in these studies at all, as this type was not introduced until 1993 by Perttula (1993, 68). Also, decision was a considerably less conventional situation here than in those two investigations. The discrepancies may be explained by the assortment of categories used or the general context of action examined. In any case, the findings appear to indicate that information action connected to the paranormal occurs first and foremost in seeking something new — unacquainted people or organizations, novelties in the world, unfamiliar objects, new phenomena, supernatural experiences or talents, etc.
Generic Situation Movement States
Dervin (1983b, 15) insists that all the various Situation Movement States illustrate different ways in which the actor sees his movement as halting. The assumption may be called into question, for only some of them in actuality imply stopping. This is also insinuated by the words ”movement state” themselves. In her master’s thesis, Perttula (1993, 67) classified situations according to the degree of metaphorical motion in time- space, according to whether the person conceives his movement on the road as free, difficult or stopped. In my study, ”difficult” was replaced with ”restricted” in order to more accurately convey the nature of this sort of movement. Moreover, one brand-new type was discovered: wrong way.
In Table 2, the 11 specific SMSs have been aggregated under four more general ones: free, restricted, stopped, and wrong way. A free situation means that the actor was uninhibited to move towards his destination. This was the ”easiest” one of the situation types. In a restricted situation, the person was able to move in the direction of his goal, but something was slowing him down. When in a stopped situation, the individual was at least temporarily prevented from getting on with his journey to the destination.
Finally, being on a wrong way signifies that the actor was in fact moving away from his target, in another direction not of his choice. It is not hard to imagine that a position of this sort was usually the least comfortable. In practice, wrong way refers to a
problematic situation.
The present classification of the specific SMSs is only half the same as Perttula’s.
She reckons that in a barrier or problematic situation, the person’s movement just becomes more onerous. (ibid.) This study suggests otherwise. A barrier situation actually stops the actor’s onward movement, at least temporarily. If it did not, one would probably be talking about a worrying situation. The problematic situation was already discussed above. On the other hand, Perttula (ibid.) asserts that orienteering and shifting exhibit free motion. In view of the instances in this investigation, these situation categories rather belong to restricted circumstances, for the informants’ advance was not that straightforward. More research is needed, however, to determine whether the aggregation of the specific SMSs under the generic ones holds good, or whether the freedom of movement is a dimension of its own.
TABLE 2. Generic Situation Movement States (SMSs) and their constituent specific SMSs (n=47) _____________________________________________________________________________________
Generic SMS* f % Specific SMSs* f %
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Restricted** 24 51 Orienteering 12 26
Being led 5 11
Worrying 5 11
Shifting 2 4
- - -
Stopped** 12 26 Waiting 4 9
Barrier 3 6
Dead end 3 6
Decision 1 2
Observing 1 2
- - -
Wrong way 7 15 Problematic 7 15
- - -
Free** 4 9 Moving 4 9
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Total 47 100 47 100
_____________________________________________________________________________________
* Following the theory of Sense-Making, these categories are represented in a partially metaphoric guise.
** Source: Perttula 1993, 66-67.
Restricted situations arose most often, in as many as half of the cases (see Table 2). The smallest group were free conditions which represented only one eleventh of all
situations. This illustrates how uncommon it appears to be to seek paranormal information in free circumstances.
Basic Situation Movement States
The aforementioned four-class typology seemed valid and exhaustive, but it was still possible to distil the categories into types of even higher abstraction. Thus was born
”basic” Situation Movement State, consisting of merely two kinds: advancing and blocked (in Table 3). In an advancing situation, the person was able to approach his goal, whereas when being blocked, he could not proceed toward it. Advancing situations are composed of free and restricted SMSs, and blocked situations incorporate stopped and wrong way ones. This dichotomy offers the supreme level of abstractness for SMSs.
Almost two thirds of the situations were advancing, and the remaining situations were blocked.
TABLE 3. Basic Situation Movement States (SMSs) and their constituent generic and specific SMSs (n=47)
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Basic SMS* f % Generic SMSs* f % Specific SMSs* f %
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Advancing 28 60 Restricted 24 51 Orienteering 12 26
Being led 5 11
Worrying 5 11
Shifting 2 4
Free 4 9 Moving 4 9
- - -
Blocked 19 40 Stopped 12 26 Waiting 4 9
Barrier 3 6
Dead end 3 6
Decision 1 2
Observing 1 2
Wrong way 7 15 Problematic 7 15
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Total 47 100 47 100 47 100
_____________________________________________________________________________________
* Following the theory of Sense-Making, these categories are represented in a partially metaphoric guise.
* * *
During the analysis, it gradually became apparent what Situation Movement State really means. It is not just about temporal-spatial motion (as a metaphor), let alone about the way of stopping. It may be asserted that SMS is the totality of the relationship between the actor’s destination and the conditions on the road which he perceives as affecting his progression at a particular point in the process. This whole can be conceptualized as a state of movement that may be something else than coming to a halt.
Motives for action Generic motives
In the past, there has been a tendency to view the motivations for seeking information as binary opposites. Thus, we have seen antithetical expressions of this pair of motives employed in the literature — including interest vs. concern (Wilson 1977, 43-45), learning vs. problem-solving (Kari 1996, 51), intrinsic vs. instrumental information seeking (Sarlund 1991, 46), and orienting vs. practical information seeking (Savolainen 1995a, 18-19; Savolainen 1999b, 78, 81, 100, 106). In the final analysis, all these couples refer to the dichotomy of (mental) reflection and (physical) action. It may be conjectured that both motives can incite the person to hunt for information. If this is so, the still prevailing infatuation for researching information seeking in the service of problem resolution only is perplexing. To take an example, Belkin and Vickery (1985, 18) profess that since the 1960’s, research has systematically indicated that information behaviour stems from a problem situation faced by the individual (see also Bruce 1997, 320, 324, 327; Schamber 2000, 734).
Yet, this study revealed that there are not one or two, but four different generic motives for information action: change, interest, maintenance and problem (see Table 4). Change refers to the actor’s desire to transform something. The next specimen deals with the interviewee’s spiritual development:
”Yeah no well I’ve for example — I have inquired like I left my good job because of feeling all the time that my spiritual growth will stop there if I have to make a product in which I don’t believe myself. So I have like now then — in a way I had to do it internally, and leave the so-
called this kind of respected occupation, and well then I’ve anyway like asked then one LS and some like clairvoyants if like … I’m doing the right thing or what would now happen to me or — I’ve got so much energy that I don’t like have — it would seem like this life is so short that there’s no time to waste, but when is the new job coming.”
(Marjo 114-115) TABLE 4. Generic motives for action and their properties (n=47)
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Generic motive Properties f %
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Problem* •solving predicament 21 45
•negative emotions
(•may not be regarded as problematic or difficult) (•anxiety)
(•searching for help)
(•may be continuous or recurring) (•has to be dealt with)
(•may be another’s)
Change* •desire for transformation 15 32
•alone or in co-operation with others
•inner drive or assignment from ”above”
(•may be about changing others or environment) (•may be long-term or even endless)
(•creating new) (•development) (•positive feelings)
(•may be desire to experiment) (•own goals)
(•no deadline)
(•giving up old things)
(•may be difficult, but not a problem) (•may be systematic)
Interest*/** •being intrigued by something 10 21
(•curiosity: knowing as goal) (•studying something) (•no plans)
(•contemplation) (•positive sentiments) (•no hurry)
(•perhaps for no particular reason) (•long-term)
Maintenance •performing routine task 1 2
•preventing problems (•repeating)
(•may be commissioned by another) (•may even invoke positive emotions)
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Total 47 100
_____________________________________________________________________________________
* Source: Savolainen 1999b, 101. ** Source: Wilson 1977, 43-45.
Interest means that the individual was curious about something and wished to know more about it, often for no particular purpose. This participant got keen on paranormal things:
”No, the interest was awakened indeed already in the summer, so there didn’t like exist any such
thing, any reason, any specific reason to search for the information so I just happened to get for some reason interested in like …”
(Gaia 265)
Maintenance, on the other hand, denotes taking care of a routine task in order to sustain something. Such activity could entail handing out leaflets, for example:
”Likewise about I&U Fair I got somewhere — I can’t remember where — I got a big bundle of I&U Fair brochures. I distributed them all over M. So I’ve got these for the association different — brochures. These I hand out all over M and so forth — inform so this is like this kind of task also in my association.”
(Ulla 890-893)
Finally, problem signifies that the individual tried to find a solution to a dilemma. For instance, this could mean endeavouring to save the life of another person in mortal danger:
”This isn’t of course quite smart to without the other’s knowledge go and do, but — or I felt that the situation was so desperate somehow it was continuous that --- in hospital and seizures always came.”
(Cecilia 42)
It is perhaps of consequence to note that all of these motives insinuate taking action.
Problem as a motive was not necessarily the same as problematic situation as a Situation Movement State. It appears that a problematic situation always involved a problem, but a problem could emerge in almost any kind of SMS. This implies that the general conception of problem is broader than the kindred category in Sense-Making.
Table 4 divulges that by accounting for nearly half of the situations, a problem was the number one motive for taking action. At the other end of the scale, only one situation was about maintenance. This finding is at variance with that of my master’s thesis (Kari 1996, 99; also Kari 1998b, 31, 36) which ascertained that searching for supernatural information is chiefly provoked by interest. These disparate results can be reconciled by suggesting that habitual information seeking on the paranormal may be more geared to satisfying one’s interest, whereas situation-specific, acute searching could be more tied up with problem-solving.
Basic motives
The motives put forth above were dubbed ”generic”, because they could be
conceptualized in a more basic way, as in Table 5. This higher-level typology revolves around the idea of whether the motive is external or internal to the actor. External motives were factors in the person’s environment that caused him to take action, while internal motives were incentives which welled forth from somewhere within the individual. The antithesis does not denote that there would in effect be two separate worlds — inside and outside of the person — but rather that both the actor and his environment are different aspects of the same reality. Maintenance and problem were included in the external motives, and change and interest belonged to the internal motivations. It is certainly imaginable that a problem or a need to maintain something could sometimes be born from the individual himself, or that a change might be
demanded by his surroundings (see Savolainen 1999b, 101), but these eventualities did not come into being in the present study. Motives for information action have not been analysed at such a high level of abstraction before.
All in all, there were slightly more situations with an internal motive than with an external one. Notice (in Table 5) how a problem was no longer such a prevalent
motivation at this scale, as compared to its position among the generic motives in Table 4. Suvi Perttula (1994, 41), however, asserts that the process of information seeking usually takes rise in an external impulse. It could be that seeking paranormal
information is especially resorted to in addressing one’s own desires. Or, Perttula’s